calls. they are trying to figure out what the next steps are. how to maybe restructure the proposal to have a shot at 50 votes there are real questions about how willing senator manchin is to reengage in negotiations to some degree, not just a policy issue. it is a personal issue. that has been very clear over the course of the last 24 hours. and as one senate democrat told me, take a breath. phil mattingley, cnn, the white house. let s talk more about this with jessica levinson. a professor of law at loyola high school and the host of the podcast, passing judgment. good to have you here. good to be here. we have been assured that this presidential speech will not be about lockdowns but everyone is looking for answers on why this pandemic isn t over yet and why people are having to stand in long lines for covid tests in the lead up to the holidays. what does the president need to
actually won on the republican national committee twitter page right now. phil, we should know something that is very important to the american people. a great day on the economic news front. i m sure they re breathing a sigh of relief at the white house. a sigh of relief. maybe some high fives as well. everything we re talking about underscores the stakes of this administration. it is administration that over the course of the last two weeks, whether it is through blowout growth numbers on the economic front, the elimination of the leader of isis, the opportunity for the president to leave his mark on the supreme court, and now a jobs market surpassed every expectation for the moment. president biden having a very good couple of weeks. america s job machine is better than ever. our country is taking everything that cove has thrown at us and come back stronger. a clear message coming from a
election. take listen. i heard this week that president trump said i had the right to overturn the election. president trump is wrong. i had no right to overturn the election. the presidency belongs to the american people and the american people alone. and frankly, there is no idea more unamerican than the notion that any one person could choose the american president. i want to bring in cnn s jeff zeleny as well as phil mattingley. this is shocking. the language he s using, wrong, unamerican, big deal. reporter: no question about it. this was a choice. there is perhaps nobody more cognizant or clear-eyed about what the former president s response would be to these remarks than his former number two. his former deputy and former vice president mike pence. mike pence decided to lay out very clearly and in as strong of
that he was willing to work with president trump. also talking about several elements about ambassador gordon sondland who will be testifying next week in his role through all of this. and another important point. the fact giuliani jl was continuously a factor in all the things going on behind the scenes, something we also heard today from marie yovanovitch, the former ukraine ambassador. one thing that stands out. this has not been pointed out, probably because most don t have the opening statement. one piece of this is key. in his testimony, in his opening statement, holmes makes cheer the reason he called ambassador william taylor and informed him of this meeting, of the details that are now spilling out into the public, he was paying attention to the impeachment inquiry and he saw that people were saying all the information was hearsay. a key argument. he realized he had first person information and he decided to bring it to congress. guys? phil mattingly, thanks.
as the exambassador to the ukraine ended her testimony, another major development was unfolding. the opening statement of a person who overheard a public conversation in which president trump asked about ukraine launching investigations. he said an ambassador told him the president didn t give an expletive about ukraine. he was all about investigating the bidens. cnn correspondent phil mattingley tells us more about what we heard on the hearing that went late into the evening. it was detail in the various places, it was damning for president trump and it was exactly what democrats have been looking for in their impeachment inquiry. david holmes laying out what ambassador william taylor first exposed on wednesday of this week in his own testimony. noting that a staffer had overheard in a meeting president trump on the phone talking explicitly about investigations.